Detentions

A cell block inside Sednaya Prison in Damascus, where thousands of people were said to be detained and tortured by the Assad regime over the last decade. © Chris McGrath/Getty Images; Inset graphic: digital reconstruction of the prison building, part of the virtual tour available at prisons.museum/en/syria © Syria Prisons Museum.

Syria - From Silence to Memory

Read about the new Damascus museum memorialising the heartbreaking stories of those who suffered in the country’s prisons.

14 Nov 25

Russian soldier Sergey Tuzhilov (left), took part in the executions of captured Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv region in 2024. © Security Service of Ukraine

Russian POW On Trial for Executing Soldier

Servicemen confessed to crimes and pleaded to be part of a future prisoner exchange.

9 Sep 25

Nana Annette Namata was assaulted by police officers in April 2019, at the gate of the Uganda Police headquarters in Kampala. © D. Asiimwe

These Ugandans Say They Were Sexually Assaulted by the State

Opposition activists abused in detention tell IWPR they face an impossible choice: silence or exile.

28 Nov 24

Residential buildings in a flooded area on June 8, 2023 in Kherson, Ukraine. Early Tuesday, the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant, which sits on the Dnipro river in the southern Kherson region, was destroyed, forcing downstream communities to evacuate due to the risk of flooding. © Alex Babenko/Getty Images

A War Crime Against the Environment

Could the destruction of the Kakhovka dam be prosecuted by the ICC?

31 Jul 24

Crimea, an internationally recognised Ukrainian territory with special status, was annexed by the Russian Federation on March 18, 2014. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Russia guilty of systematic violations of human rights in Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula. © Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images

Landmark European Ruling Over Crimea Offers Fresh Hope

Decision by top European court provides basis for resolving hundreds of individual Ukrainian cases.

23 Jul 24

Security Service of Ukraine served notice of suspicion to Russian propagandist Mardan who called for repressions against Ukrainians. © SSU

Pursuing Russian Propagandists

Activist groups want arrest warrants issued for key figures inciting hatred against Ukrainians in the Russian media.

16 Jul 24

The Council of Europe has started the process of creating a Special Tribunal to try the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine. © Sergey Guneev - Host Photo Agency via Getty Images

Can the Council of Europe Create A Tribunal for Putin?

Ukrainian human rights defender argues this could be the platform on which the prosecution for the crime of aggression can be built.

9 Jul 24

A row of destroyed apartment blocks in Mariupol.

Russia’s Weaponisation of Starvation in Mariupol

Civilians deprived of health care, food, and water in what may constitute a war crime.

2 Jul 24

National guard special operations soldier checks the ruins of a building previously used as a local headquarters by Russian occupying forces during a search for evidence of war crimes by police investigators, on October 14, 2022 in Vyshneve, Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine. © Carl Court/Getty Images

Investigating War Crimes Under Daily Attack

In Kharkhiv region, constant shelling of the border territories is a significant obstacle to inspecting incident scenes and collecting evidence.

25 Jun 24

Children ride a roundabout in a play park next to destroyed buildings on November 14, 2022 in Borodyanka , Ukraine. Russia is believed to have deported tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to its own territory, subjecting them to indoctrination, forcing them to take Russian citizenship and often putting them up for adoption. © Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Returning Ukraine’s Children

Legal experts consider Russia’s wide-scale illegal displacement and deportation of minors to be a war crime.

18 Jun 24

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